Jim Ruppert: SHG has horses for third state football crown

Sunday

Nov 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2008 at 3:38 PM

CHAMPAIGN — They are the long and the short of it. They are the alpha and the omega, the arms and the legs. And they are the heart and the soul of the Sacred Heart-Griffin High School football team. The Four Horsemen of SHG rode off into the sunset Saturday afternoon with a state championship.

CHAMPAIGN — They are the long and the short of it. They are the alpha and the omega, the arms and the legs. And they are the heart and the soul of the Sacred Heart-Griffin High School football team.

The Four Horsemen of SHG rode off into the sunset Saturday afternoon with a state championship.

Quarterback Tim Dondanville is 6 feet 3 and runs the no-huddle offense like a maestro. John Lantz also stands 6-3 and makes it look so easy, whether he’s catching passes or running back kicks or intercepting passes.

Gary Wilson is listed at 5-8 and Dominic Walton at 6-0. They must have been measured with 3-inch cleats on their football shoes. But boy, do they pack a lot of magic in those small packages, Wilson as a running back and Walton as a receiver and linebacker.

That those four accounted for all of the Cyclones’ scoring — except for four Gus Bloink extra-point kicks and a 30-yard Bloink field goal — in a 37-15 victory over Lemont should come as no surprise. And neither should the fact that these guys all were around for three SHG state titles in four years.

Dondanville completed 12 of 22 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns. Walton caught two passes for 73 yards and a score. Lantz had six receptions for 43 yards and a TD. And Wilson rushed for 122 yards and three TDs.

“You stop 13 (Lantz) and they’ve still got 8 (Walton),” Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen said. “Five (Wilson) is shifty, does a nice job of seeing an opening. He’s able to get a good block and see the opening.

“The quarterback, I think he’s an excellent player. In that kind of offense the quarterback is asked to make a ton of decisions, and it sure seemed like for the most part he made the right ones.”

Funny, but it didn’t start so great for the Four Horsemen.

“Going into the game we had one fumble all year,” SHG coach Ken Leonard said. “So on the first play of the state championship game we fumble.”

That would be Dondanville, who gained 1 yard on the first play and then lost the ball.

“I wasn’t nervous,” Dondanville said. “Coach (Neal) Taylor always yells at me for not putting the ball away on some of those reads. That’s what happened. No. 31 (Lemont linebacker Ryan Fejedelem), I think it is, made a great play.”

The Indians had to settle for a field goal after the turnover, and it proved to be decisive when Dondanville connected with Walton on a 72-yard catch-and-run that put the Cyclones ahead to stay.

“I told myself in my head that I wasn’t going down no matter what,” said Walton, who caught the ball in traffic, broke a tackle and outran the secondary to the end zone. “That’s exactly what I did. Johnny was right in front of me leading me the whole way.”

The Cyclones ran the same play two times in a row. Dondanville overthrew Walton the first time.

“It kind of slipped out of my hand, but that’s not an excuse,” Dondanville said. “Dom made a great play, broke a couple tackles.

“That play’s been good for us all year. Usually it goes to John because he’s the outside guy. But Dom found a hole and made a big play out of it.”

Lantz said, “Dom made a great run after the hit. It was awesome.’’

Meanwhile, Wilson was being bottled up by a Lemont defense that seemed intent on not letting him display any of his patented spin moves. Although he scored on 10- and 7-yard runs in the second quarter, Wilson had just 17 rushing yards on seven carries in the first half and just 20 rushing yards heading into the fourth quarter.

“We just had to be patient,” Wilson said, “let things come to you.”

And just like that, on the Cyclones’ second play from scrimmage in the fourth quarter, he burst up the middle for 64 yards.

“We did what we needed to do to win the game,” Wilson said matter-of-factly.

Dondanville said there was some concern as the Lemont defense keyed on Wilson.

“I kind of was because for Gary, he can just break it wide open,” Dondanville said. “They had a great game plan, and our coaches figured out what they were doing and capitalized off the mistakes they made.”

Ahead by just one score at 23-15 midway through the fourth quarter, the Cyclones turned to their summer playbook. Dondanville passed 8 yards to Lantz on a quick slant in the end zone.

“That was our staple play in 7-on-7 for goal lines,” Dondanville said. “It’s routine . . . state championship, no matter where it is, John will get open and I’ll get him the ball.”

Lantz, who was playing with two cracked ribs, had to stretch for the ball, but once he got it on his fingertips, it was six points. Last week against New Lenox Providence, Lantz was limited by the rib injury, but he said he was much better this week.

“I might not have had the reach (last week),” he said. “It probably would have hurt too bad to reach out and get that one.

“It’s the state championship. You’ve got to let it out.”

That’s just what the Four Horsemen did. But they weren’t ready to take all of the credit.

“Everybody just stepped up,” Walton said. “We said in the locker room that we weren’t going to have a letdown like Montini (the only loss of the season, 34-31 in Week One). So we just took it to another level, and we were going to win it for everybody before us.”

Dondanville said, “The thing is it takes 22 guys. The Big Four, whatever people call it . . . only happens from the other 18 guys. The offensive line, the defensive line, the play up front won the battle of the line of scrimmage, and that was huge.”

And so was the contribution of the Four Horsemen.

Jim Ruppert can be reached at 788-1549 or jim.ruppert@sj-r.com.

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